Dolphins, turtle and remora

Today’s tour was for real sailors who can enjoy a churning sea …No worry, we only go out when safety is guaranteed 😉 We definitely had fun with the big swell and choppy surface though, and did also enjoy a group of foraging common dolphins. One of the individuals was repeatedly leaping back side, until we noticed that on its ventral region close to the genital area there was a remora. Dolphins do jumps for various reasons and one is to get rid of parasites. The remora, though seem very well attached and did not show any sign of displacement. The truth is that the dolphin movements were likely not very useful to detach the fish as the back was the part that repeatedly was hitting the sea surface.

Not too far from the dolphins, a loggerhead turtle was resting, lazy and calm, possibly also enjoying the waves.

The upcoming days look quite windy already, but since we are in the Azores there’s always a possibility for a change in the weather and sea state conditions. Finger crossed we can go out and meet our aquatic friends 🙂

About
Arianna Cecchetti

Arianna is a Marine Biologist and was Main Guide at TERRA AZUL since 2009, and Technical & Scientific Director until 2018. Originally from Italy, she sees herself more as a world citizen. Arianna deserves the very best, and we hope she can come back to share her passion for the sea with us again.